{"id":25075,"date":"2020-03-03T09:52:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T16:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/?p=25075"},"modified":"2023-08-29T11:24:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:24:35","slug":"fires-down-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/fires-down-under\/","title":{"rendered":"Fires Down Under"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another devastating fire season has come and gone in Australia, leaving in its path thousands of hectares of burnt-out landscape, houses turned to ash, 129 deaths, massive loss of livestock, and innumerable endemic animals gone. The very faint wisp of smoke on a 45 Celsius-degree day is enough to send panicked phone calls to emergency services.<\/p>\n

Vast tracts of farmland still smoulder. Bush land is eerily blackened. For a few weeks, the Eyre Highway was closed, isolating Western Australia from its usual conveyance of trucks laden with essential supplies. Caravans (RVs), trucks, and cars were stranded in hot conditions near the Nullarbor Plain, prevented from driving because of the relentless thick smoke.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tragedy and recovery<\/strong><\/h2>\n

International news media beamed images around the world of the unfolding tragedy. The United States generously sent teams of skilled firefighters to help. It also loaned large water bomber aircraft, only to sadly lose one fire-fighting aircraft and its dedicated pilots in the thick smoke near the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.<\/p>\n

As the fires abate, the recovery process is now underway. Insurance assessors are hard at work responding to claims. Convoys of semi-trailer trucks are carting hay to fodder-starved farms halfway across the country. Stunned residents are slowly trying to recover their lives, searching for mementos among the charcoal ruins of what were once their homes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Triumph<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yet, through all this, there have been amazing moments.<\/p>\n

State Emergency Services personnel, the fire services, the police, and other emergency services worked tirelessly in exhausting conditions. Charities collected and distributed funds to the needy. Notable people rescued and cared for traumatized animals.<\/p>\n

In some cases, smaller animals survived the heat by hiding in wombat caves, dug deep into the ground. And in a few reported cases where farmers prayed, houses were miraculously spared as the firestorm swept by, leaving a blackened, smouldering landscape.<\/p>\n

In some parts of Australia, smoke haze still lingers, a reminder that this great, dry southern continent has a history of boom and bust, fire and flood, life and death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Explanations<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Throughout all this, the media, more equipped than ever before, shared a narrative that these fires were essentially caused by a lack of assertive action toward solving the climate change issue. The unfolding tragedy of loss and death became thus somewhat politicalized as leftist political parties attributed generous blame against more conservative voices.<\/p>\n

Notably, also, those same sources of dissent didn\u2019t refer to the records that reveal 186 people over the past year throughout Australia were formally charged with arson-related offences.<\/p>\n

Historically, however, this year\u2019s fires were in some ways comparable to those that have been recorded since the 1800s. Records show that, to varying degrees, there was even greater loss of life, land, and property in previous seasons.<\/p>\n

Sometimes such catastrophic events are likened to the \u201cend of the world.\u201d And for some, emotionally and physically, it is \u2014 like the death of a young fire brigade volunteer, whose young wife and baby are left behind, grieving. The loss of 5,000 sheep was too much for one farmer and his wife. Or an entire enterprise that turned to nothing more than uninsured ashes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Changed values<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In an earlier Australia that had a distinct Christian ethos, the suffering and traumatized could somehow see their vulnerability within the context of a greater transcendent reality. God would provide. God would comfort. God would restore \u2014 according to His riches. God allows these things to happen. God is with us, no matter what.<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019ve evolved into a different generation whose values have changed. We\u2019ve become a secularized country that possesses an unspoken public disdain \u2014 almost a hatred \u2014 of anything that reflects Jesus\u2019 name. God is no longer in the nation\u2019s psyche. Politics, education, and media now speak in unison with a nuanced, \u201cpolitically correct\u201d voice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dealing with disaster<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As a result, our way of dealing with disaster has also changed. Funding for mental health services has increased, in many cases to meet the significant rise in suicide and post-traumatic stress.<\/p>\n

No longer do we pray; in fact, when our Christian prime minister offered \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d for those dispossessed by the fires, he was immediately ridiculed and taunted by a leftist media.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Transcendent values<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Another fire season has passed. Next year there\u2019ll almost certainly be another season of flood, hail, fire, or drought. There\u2019ll be those who pray and those who don\u2019t. There\u2019ll be lives lost and lessons learned. Will there also be a similar \u201cclimate change urgency\u201d narrative, we may ask, next year?<\/p>\n

As followers of Jesus Christ, amid the precedent of biblical narrative, we can wonder, what does it take for a nation\u2019s heart to turn back to God? Prosperity and material abundance (blessing) have certainly moved us further away from faith. Would a loss of all we take for granted somehow speak deeper into our pain and cause us to seek those transcendent values our forebears held onto?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an interesting question as we spare a thought for those who have suffered and braved so much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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